Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1471 Isolation
The factory was engulfed in flames in an explosion.

No one nearby escaped. Some unlucky people weren't burned to death on the spot, but could only run a few steps with flames all over their bodies, screaming, before collapsing and turning into charred chunks of flesh.

Thick black smoke billowed from the burning building, accompanied by an evil force spreading into the air. Several nearby monks gathered to help extinguish the fire, but after inhaling a bit of the smoke, they were all paralyzed. Their skin hardened, and blood vessels burst through their soles, taking root in the ground. This process happened incredibly fast. Everyone who witnessed it ran away in horror, but soon, even those who were slower could no longer move.

The withered wood within the flames was growing, as if it were absorbing nutrients from the fire. Just witnessing this scene caused some experienced cultivators to break out in a cold sweat; withered branches were the very symbol of the King of Decay. If it truly were a fragment of a god's body descending to earth, then Violet City might not be able to survive. After all, an example of this existed within the borders of Toril.

However, the cultivators from the Burial Pivot arrived at the scene very quickly. With their experience, they soon determined that this was merely an imitation of a god, which might reach a level of defilement, but was far from being as terrifying as the descent of a god.

“The flames seem to be of no use.” The leading cultivator drew a small bone dagger from his waist and held it against his arm. “Everyone, use ‘Wolf Blood Clan’.”

As Liu was traveling through the underground passage, she suddenly felt a power surging from her blood. The common god was calling to her; this was the sensation that would occur when the Burial Pivot collectively activated its divine magic.

"So fast? They've already started fighting..."

This underground tunnel was dug out by some inhuman thing. Liu could smell the strange odor emanating from it. Even though she used protective magic, the smell could still penetrate her nostrils.

The soil was held in place by something like a viscous substance, preventing it from collapsing. She had already taken some samples of these viscous willows, and she was certain that this substance was not found on living people.

However, she had already seen the reaction to her marking spell.

"Ha, hiding its head and showing its tail."

An armor-piercing bullet was loaded into the magazine. To deal with these things, Zangshi Shu never resorted to interrogation; the moment the mark in her vision became clear, she unleashed her long-prepared third-tier spell!
"head shot".

Once the marking spell reaches its third-tier qualitative leap, the next strike will be unleashed upon pulling the trigger, targeting a vital area. This is a divinely blessed attack, inescapable and left the opponent with no choice but to take it head-on.

The armor-piercing projectile, transformed into an orange-red burning beam, instantly illuminated the dark tunnel, pierced the wall, and created a hole the size of a washbasin in the target's body in a straight line, leaving only a thin connecting part.

But Liu then heard a lot of disgusting slimy sliding sounds, and the number of marks in her eyes increased rapidly.

"Oh...what an impolite guest."

A hoarse, aged voice came from among the sliding sounds, and in the still-burning red light of the scorching earth, Liu saw the person who had caused it all.

The gravedigger was emaciated, his body covered in large and small green pustules, from which liquid was still faintly flowing. A book, seemingly made of liquid, was embedded in his chest, with copious amounts of putrid fluid dripping from between its pages. This putrid fluid gathered in a lower depression, forming a pond, where some corpses lay beside the pond, drinking its juices.

"Tsk." Liu had no intention of questioning this group of heretics and immediately replaced the gun with an incendiary bullet.

"There's not enough air in here, and the putrid liquid is very flammable. Are you sure you want to set it on fire? You'll burn yourself to death here too."

The gravedigger's voice was seductive, but Liu remained unmoved and fired a shot.

Flames erupted underground in an instant, causing multiple drainage systems within the city to explode. Parts of the ground were blown away, while others caved in. Corpses were also hurled to the surface, and the massive commotion immediately attracted the attention of surrounding church members and the guards.

The gravedigger had never dealt with the people of the Burial Grounds before, otherwise he would know that language was useless in stalling for time with this group. As Liu himself was blasted away, his pupils turned golden, his fingers began to sharpen, fangs emerged from the corners of his mouth, and he drew a serrated folding knife used for hunting and another short bone-chopping axe into his hands.

"Wolf Bloodline," a sixth-tier divine spell, a status-type spell.

While many at the Burial Grounds still needed to activate the spell as a team, the Saints could directly connect with the gods and transform themselves into this state. Liu's enhanced physical abilities and perception meant she was completely unharmed by the explosion, only suffering burns to a few pieces of her clothing. The gravedigger, however, who was blasted out from underground, wasn't so lucky. Several pustules on his body ruptured, spilling copious amounts of putrid fluid, which ignited flames, and now his entire body was ablaze.

"Aww——"

A long, drawn-out wolf howl echoed through the air, the horn of the hunt. Liu descended from the sky, his two weapons glowing crimson as he slashed down in a cross pattern. Several corpses blocking his path were torn apart before they could even react, spraying out copious amounts of bodily fluids, but none could keep up with Liu's speed as he passed through them.

The gravedigger had just ordered a large number of corpses to help extinguish the flames when he saw Liu rushing up. He immediately raised his tattered cane, using the corpses to shield him, then reached for the melting pages of the book on his chest and murmured a few words.

"Blasphemy".

A filthy torrent poured from his palm, its stench detectable even two streets away. Upon seeing this, Liu immediately roared, his voice blazing with light, causing the corpses and the filthy torrent to retreat.

The fourth-tier divine spell "Intimidation" becomes more powerful the more kills one performs. Although Liu may not be the strongest Burial Pivot user in Violet City, she is more than capable of suppressing a gravedigger who has spent his entire life guarding tombs.

After defeating all obstacles in his path, the gravedigger faced a serrated folding knife descending upon him. With no chance to dodge, he could only let out a cry before the blade cleaved him from head to chest.

"Ok?"

Liu frowned slightly, noticing that something felt off.

In her "Wolf Bloodline" form, her blade could have sliced ​​the old man from head to toe without any effort. However, just as she was about to strike his chest, something hard blocked her attack.

It was the book embedded in the tomb keeper's chest.

From the split neck cavity, gurgling sounds still emanated. The gravedigger's hands waved futilely, tossing the cane aside. The fatal injury hadn't immediately taken his life; Liu had already tried to draw his knife when he realized this, but the serrated edge got stuck on the liquid-like pages of the book.

Seeing the situation was turning bad, Liu immediately released her grip. The putrid liquid, as if it were alive, rolled up the serrated blade, almost pulling her hand into it.

Losing one or two weapons wouldn't bother Liu; she hadn't even used her real weapons yet. It was just that the gravedigger's current condition was difficult to assess. Undoubtedly, he was in the process of dying, but the process seemed to be dragging on. In his prolonged agony, putrefactive fluid gushed from his body like a fountain, far exceeding what his already emaciated frame could hold. Liu pulled out another hammer; if cutting didn't work, she planned to use a blunt object. She also heard the sound of reinforcements approaching.

The monks dressed in white and red robes had already entered the street.

"It stinks." The slender, red-robed cultivator pinched his nose, and the three eyeballs behind him shot out red light in succession, freezing all the crawling corpses in place.

“Elti, Berndi?” Liu hadn’t expected that other cardinals would arrive first.

“The whole city is busy right now, so everyone can only go to the nearest available location,” said Cardinal Berni, shrugging. “You cardinals usually rush to the front lines, which means that when it’s time to provide support, there’s no one left in the rear.”

"Enough with the small talk." Elti glanced at the gravedigger, whose body was oozing putrid fluid. "Can't you kill him?"

"Slicing with sharp tools is ineffective, and burning is somewhat useful but not much. The book on his chest is problematic; it's hard and suspected to be the source of the anomaly." Liu quickly synchronized the results he had typed out.

Burdi sighed, waved his hand to stop the more corpses trying to crawl over to help, and turned his head to ask, "Sounds like this for you, Elti?"

"Who cares? The Burial Pivot has already made its judgment." Elti lifted the briefcase slightly, opening the sides to reveal two cannon barrels protruding from it.

"Let me step aside..."

Before Berndi could finish speaking, the deafening roar of the cannon fire shook the entire street.

Liu had already closed her eyes to prevent the ray of light from burning her. The firepower of the Kishi no Kagami was much stronger than that of the Zangshi no Kagami, but the only pity was that the Kishi no Kagami usually didn't leave much after it finished off the target. If you needed some specimens or materials from the target, you still had to let the Zangshi no Kagami do it.

After the bright light through her eyelids faded, Liu opened her eyes. The area within five meters of where the tomb keeper had been standing had been turned into a molten pit. Under such power, even iron blocks would have melted, and as for the person, nothing was left.

"The range of power was well controlled, and it didn't cause much damage. Berndy, are those corpses still moving?" El asked.

"Still moving? Is the commander still alive, or is there no need for a commander at all?" Burdi narrowed his eyes, continuing to suppress the surrounding corpses.

"I'm guessing it's the latter, don't waste your time," Elti said.

“Okay…” Burdi extended a finger and traced it in front of an eyeball.

As if an invisible hand appeared, all the suppressed corpses were squeezed together into a ball, without even a drop of putrid juice leaking out. They were instantly rolled into corpse balls, and their aimless activity finally came to an end.

Elty clapped his hands and said, "Liu, is there anything else I can help with? Violet City has now been divided into forty-six districts, and each district needs to be thoroughly searched. We still have to rush to the next location."

“Unfortunately, I’m afraid we’ll have to.” Liu pointed to the spot not far away where he had ignited the underground tunnel and created the blast. “When I found the tomb keeper, I was underground. To avoid fighting on the enemy’s home turf, I changed battlefields. Now we need to consider whether the area below has been cleared.”

"What about your own people from the Burial Grounds?" Elti asked, his face full of reluctance to take on the workload.

"If I'm not mistaken about the palpitations and excitement emanating from their blood, then they're probably all engaged in a fierce battle." Liu gave an apologetic smile.

Elti sighed, "Berdi, call our men over here."

=
Just as Liu had said, the cultivators of the Burial Pivot were among the first to get excited. Even in the Southern District, one could not help but see these cultivators in black armor moving through the streets.

Vanessa and Veronica had initially developed a favorable impression of the people from Burial Kaname after traveling with Liu for a while, but now they realized that Liu was the one with a rather unique personality. While the previous Kaname was simply difficult to communicate with, Burial Kaname simply refused to communicate at all.

If it weren't for the fact that the Priestess of the Burial Monastery hadn't caused any disturbance due to her rigid approach, Vanessa would have been quite anxious, to the point that Father Thorne had to reduce her workload.

“Has Vanessa been a little too anxious lately? Veronica hasn’t been like this.” Father Thorne was a little unsure and went to the pharmacist instead.

The apothecary hadn't left the church recently because he was practicing new spells. He had also noticed the state of the two of them.

"This state often occurs when you suddenly take on more responsibility and demand the best of yourself," the pharmacist said. "It's mainly due to Vanessa's personality."

"In her studies, Veronica is usually the more diligent one."

“Veronica’s seriousness comes from her treating everything equally, while Vanessa will spend more energy on things she cares about more.” The pharmacist sighed. Although Father Thorne provided a good educational environment, it has to be said that teaching children is always a difficult task. Obviously, the priest had not personally taught the two of them anything important—that kind of classroom teaching.

Fortunately, Father Thorne also realized his own problem and asked directly, "Shouldn't we help her?"

"I suggest you take some of the chores she doesn't particularly enjoy, so she can focus her energy on communicating with the church cardinals. She's already got her eye on this, so it's not easy to interfere. It's better to provide some assistance from a sideline to save time. I know you're busy too, but you should still have some spare time?"

“I’m over forty years old, so I can manage my time well.” Father Thorne nodded. “Tomorrow I’ll rearrange the church’s work and promote a few people to be deputies.”

As the two were talking, a man suddenly ran into the church.

"Father! Father! Help me, save me!"

The man stumbled up the steps, glancing back several times with a look of terror on his face, as if something was chasing him. Father Thorne and the apothecary immediately stood up, while the knights guarding the church drew their swords.